I was reading some of the latest things Mrs Kerry had to say about healthcare and her husbands plans and it got me to thinking about the two wives of the men running for office. We’ve had endless debates about Kerry vs Bush…but not about THIS pair of Kerry/Bush.
Some things for the debate:
Are wives a factor at all in deciding a president?
Which of these two women are a greater asset to their husband and why?
What role should a first lady play…and who will be better at it after the election, LB or THK?
In a death match, enclosed in a steel cage, which would prevail?? (ok, this one is a joke…I’m getting a bit punchy due to the lateness of the hour and my consumption of cheap whiskey at this hotel).
I think a first lady doesn’t help much, but can hurt a lot. If the first lady is just too creepy or obnoxious, it’ll be a serious drag on the ticket. Theresa, with her, “If you don’t like it you’re an idiot” comment, is skirting that line. The campaign should tuck her away somewhere for a while.
Laura Bush is the perfect first lady, attractive, demure, has her own charities and issues she works for, and stays out of the limelight. Even as good as I think she is, I’m not sure she gets Bush more than a small number of extra votes.
Ditto to whoever said it doesn’t help but it can hurt.
Teresa is a huge liability. She’s a spoiled rich doctor’s kid who doesn’t have a thing in common with the average American. I respect that she can speak a bazillion languages and has a snooty foreign accent that supposedly denotes breeding, but she doesn’t have the common sense of a hairbrush. She needs to go play with her grandbabies and stay away from the cameras because every time she opens her mouth she proves again that not only is she out of touch with the real America, she KNOWS she is out of touch and she WANTS to be out of touch with what she sees as the Great Unwashed.
And she’s the most influential person in the life of a man running for President. Oh goody.
So many times in the past we’ve seen First Ladies have a great deal of sway in the decision making processess of their husbands. Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosalyn Carter, Nancy Reagan and Hillary Clinton are but a few. Given this potentially enormous influence, I’d have to say that I’m much more comfortable with the things that have come out of Laura Bush’s mouth than those of T. Heinz Kerry.
I for one am offended by the entire concept of a “First Lady.” We don’t need a national hostess and the personality and nature of the president’s spouse should not matter to us at all. The only time the president’s spouse should be important is when he or she intends to play a role in policy, such as with regard to Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton. In that respect, they should be treated like any other person whom the president might appoint to his cabinet. That is, the spouse’s policy expertise should be an issue, but not his or her personality.
Like everyone else says, they can’t help but they can hurt. Of course, what is perceived as positive or negative tends to be entirely determined by what side of the political fence you’re already on. I see Heinz-Kerry as refreshing, blunt, smart, honest, cultured and educated.
I see Laura Bush as a creepy, soulless Stepford wife with no discernable intellect and an attrocious white trash accent. She sounds like Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner’s Daughter. It’s excruciating to listen to.
Still, Laura has one interesting historical distinction. She’s the first First lady who has ever taken a human life (that we know of, anyway).
In this election, we have the interesting case of both candidates’ wives campaigning for Bush. There is no way Momma T is saying such stupid things without knowing the negative effects. Sure, the overall effect isn’t that much, but it’s not like Mssr.Kerry has a huge lead to play with.
As far as Laura Bush goes, I have nothing against her, personally. I don’t think that just because she’s the First Lady she’s obligated to do anything. If the FL wants to sit on her ass all day and do her nails (NOT saying that Laura, or any other FL did this, necessarily), then that’s what she should do. The spouse of the president isn’t elected to do the job.
Having grown up in Pittsburgh, I have to say I have no issues with Teresa Heinz Kerry. The woman has done a lot of good things, and she’s seen some sadness. I was an usher at Senator Heinz’s funeral, myself.
That said, I can appreciate the fact that a lot of Americans aren’t warming to her. She has a style that can be a little off-putting.
All in all, I don’t think this will affect the race one whit.
Mr. Moto, you’ve mentioned that before-I find that really interesting. If you don’t mind my asking, how did you get to be an usher for the funeral? Were you a family friend, or just at the same church?
(The closest I come to the Heinz family was interning at the Heinz Regional History Center one semester)
I’ll give you a couple of examples from the last week.
On Kerry’s health care plan: “only an idiot wouldn’t like [Kerry’s] health care plan, but of course there are idiots.”
Way to win over those independents, Theresa.
About being rich: “the common man doesn’t see me as a rich witch”
The common man?? Do you know who doesn’t call the average person “the common man”? Average people.
Now, it’s not that there’s anything objectively wrong with those statements, it’s just that they are politically tone deaf. She either has no clue about the way the ‘common man’ is going to receive comments like this, or she just doesn’t care.
Also, Kerry has announced that he wants to create a ‘Department of Wellness’ - an idea that supposedly came from Theresa. All judgements of this moronic idea aside, this is just a stupid thing to put out there at this point in a campaign.
Then there was the convention - she gave a speech that may have played well with the people who are going to vote for Kerry anyway, but the rest of the country went, “huh?”. Her job was to introduce her husband, humanize him by offering some flattering stories of his private conduct, and in general give the public some inside info about the man. Instead, she gave some 60’s throwback speech about how women should be able to speak their minds or something. It was bafflingly stupid.
Apparently you haven’t read Living History by Hillary Clinton. As you may know Hillary Clinton was the last person to speak to Vince Foster while he was alive. She never said what he said to her before, but I heard she would reveal it in this book.
I bought it because I wanted to know what Vince Foster’s last words to Hillary Clinton were.
Well, if you subscribe to the notion that it was Laura who got George W to clean up his act and find Jesus, then I would say she is very dangerous indeed. If she had left him alone, he would be the Billy Carter we would read about when Jeb was running for President and we wouldn’t be in this mess!
Regarding John Heinz’s funeral. It was held at the University of Pittsburgh, at the Heinz Chapel. The Heinz Chapel is a lovely church, on the Cathedral of Learning grounds. It was donated to the school by the Heinz family in the 1920’s.
I was a student at Pitt at the time, and a member of the College Republicans. We were a very active chapter, and had strong ties to the county and state Republican party.
It fell to both to organize large parts of the funeral, including drivers for VIP’s and ushers for the event. We were a convenient source of warm bodies who had passed background checks for previous presidential and vice-presidential events, so we were pressed into action.
It was a lovely service. John Danforth was the officiant. I got to meet a lot of senators, afterward, at the reception.
Being first lady has got to be one of the more miserable jobs there is. You can’t have an active career of your own, can’t appear too assertive or challenging; you have all your fashion and child-rearing choices scrutinized by the press; you have to give interviews to stupid magazines like Ladies Home Journal…and so on and so on. Ugh.
I couldn’t care less who the President’s wife is. I agree with ascenray that the whole concept of “first lady” is incredibly outdated.
Laura Bush seems like a nice lady, but Theresa Heinz-Kerry seems like more fun. I really liked Judith Steinberg Dean. She seems like a sensible person with a mind of her own. And she got called on it for not being enough of a politician’s wife.
(ok, this one is a joke…I’m getting a bit punchy due to the lateness of the hour and my consumption of cheap whiskey at this hotel).
